New Beats headphones won't be announced alongside new iPhones tomorrow

New Beats headphones

We’ve got bad news for fans of Beats headphones: you likely aren’t going to see any new headphones from The Dr.’s brand in 2018 – and yes, that includes tomorrow’s iPhone event, too.

That tidbit of disappointing news comes from an anonymous source who spoke to The Verge and told the publication that Apple is pausing the high-end headphone brand's release cycle while they work on other audio products in-house. 

While Apple has yet to confirm what, exactly, those products are, there’s a very good chance it’s the AirPods 2, replete with an AirPower-compatible charging case, and potentially a new pair of over-ear headphones that would contend with the Beats Studio Wireless line-up. 

Those potential products have been outed by investigative reports that ran earlier this year, as well as by analysts from Barclays who’ve visited Apple’s overseas production partners. 

While their existence seems to be relatively well established, when they’ll be revealed is another matter entirely ... but, considering that Apple has an event in, oh, 24 hours or so, we might not be waiting long to find out. 

Beats Bye Dre

If Apple doesn’t release a new pair of Beats there would be a large segment of fans disappointed by the brand’s absence. Much worse, however, it would continue the trend where Apple focuses more on its own headphones rather than develop the Beats brand. 

For reference, the last new series of headphones released under the Beats banner were the Beats X, which were released back in February of 2017, which debuted alongside the Beats Studio 3 and Powerbeats 3 in-ear headphones.

All that said, it’s been a quiet year for the uber popular headphone maker and, if The Verge’s source is right, it looks like it’s going to stay that way.

Nick Pino

Nick Pino is Managing Editor, TV and AV for TechRadar's sister site, Tom's Guide. Previously, he was the Senior Editor of Home Entertainment at TechRadar, covering TVs, headphones, speakers, video games, VR and streaming devices. He's also written for GamesRadar+, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade, and he has a degree in computer science he's not using if anyone wants it.